All the Dust that Falls

Chapter 215: Rebel Without A Cause

Chapter 215: Rebel Without A Cause

"I'm not sure how you plan to get all the way up north." Daedalus said to Archibald. "Francis is way up in the mountains and at least a day's flight. Are you sure you don't want my help more locally?"

"Well, you can fly, right?" Archibald asked, confused. He looked at the dragon's neck, but Daedalus chose to ignore that.

"Yeah, but you can't," Daedalus pointed out the obvious. Archibald wisely kept his mouth shut. If he had been about to suggest that Daedalus carry him? Well, the man wouldn't leave the cave.

Archibald looked around as if searching for a pair of wings he could borrow. "I really would like to get back to Francis. My father is there and I don't want to see it burned to the ground."

"Wait, what? Then why do you need my help? What do you expect me to do about taking care of some rebellion?" Daedalus asked.

"The city is almost in rebel hands, we just need some support to keep the armies off."

"So, no burning it to the ground? It would be easier to take care of the rebels if I just burned the place to the ground." Daedalus supposed that he could just be intimidating, but that would be much slower than just annihilating the city and going back home. There was no guarantee the rebels would come out so he could eat them, and he might have to burn the place down anyway.

"No, we aren't going to burn the city we spent years trying to take! That would make the rebellion a waste." Archibald said. "Besides, the demons don't care if you burn the city down."

"Why should the demons care?" Daedalus was now thoroughly confused.

"Well, they would rather have their slaves dead than in control of a city. If we can free this city, we can start gathering an army and fight back." Archibald said.

"Oh, are you the rebels then? I thought this was your city." Daedalus was starting to understand.

"My city? Humans don't have a city. I don't think anyone but the demons do." Archibald said.

"'Really, none at all? I knew that gold had stopped being mined, but I thought that was just because of recent fighting and whatnot. The demons don't seem to care to get more, not like the other lesser races." Daedalus said. Archibald looked at him strangely.

"What fighting? The demons have always controlled all the cities."

Daedalus pointed to some of the more decorative pieces of his hoard. "You think the demons made this? What about that? Have you ever seen the demons make anything this beautiful?"

"No… maybe they made a human do it for them?"

"That ax was made by Ironheart Forgehammer, first king of the deep." Daedalus said proudly. It really was a rare piece and one he was proud to have liberated from the ancient dwarven treasury.

"Never heard of him…?"

"Never? What about Smith Smitherten? He carved this chalice from the highest rock of Mount Heaven-Touched."

"No?"

"Balder Bouldershoulder–?"

"Nope."

"You really know so little of the dwarves?"

"Dwarves? Aren't those just myths?"

"Just myths!" Daedalus exclaimed, forcing Archibald to cover his ears again. "JUST MYTHS?!"

"So… they aren't myths?"

***

"Sorry, Spot. No, I don't know if any dwarves survived. There might be some deep underground, but I haven't been looking for them. Yes, their arts are amazing, but I don't know anything about how they were done. I think it was mostly system based racial magic. Sure, maybe once Archibald wakes up we can go questing for them. That would be great fun."

***

Daedalus returned with a very grumpy griffin clutched in his claws. He could have made the catbird fly behind him, but it was better to put him in his place the proper way.

"Is this really necessary?" Griff cawed from below. "I would have followed you without complaint, your shiny eminence."

"Yes," Daedalus emphasized but didn't deign to explain more.

Once he rejoined Archibald where he had left him, Daedalus released his new underling. Intimidating a flock of the bird-brained cats into agreeing to send one of them to help him out hadn't been hard, but dealing with their incessant squawking was barely better than lowering himself to carrying a human he didn't plan on eating. At least he'd only needed the one.

Archibald fell back onto the rock he had just stood up from.

"A griffin!" He shouted unnecessarily.

***

Archibald was a natural flier. Even as the griffin tore through the sky at breakneck speed, just to keep up with the dragon's languid wingbeats, he kept his composure. The human only whooped with joy on the occasional dive Daedalus made to watch the herds scatter beneath him.

It only took them a little over a day to get to Francis. The city was already partly on fire, making Daedalus feel as if he had wasted his time coming here. Archibald didn't seem to agree. He eagerly pointed down to the demon army nearing the city gates. "Them, we need to get them!"

"We? What do you plan to do?" Daedalus asked, knowing the human couldn't do anything much in this situation, but the lack of respect was starting to get to him. His patience for the human would only go so far. The favor he had done the dragon was only so much.

Archibald seemed to interpret Daedalus's meaning well enough as he quickly changed tact. "Uh, can you please do something about that army?"

"Of course." Daedalus's words were almost lost to the sky as he tucked his wing and dove at the army of demons and their slaves below. With the sun at his back, the waves of arrows launched in his direction were so far off the mark that they were no more than a joke. A few hundred feet above the ground, he let loose, and streams of dragon fire drenched the army.

Everything ran before him as was right and proper. Everything but one figure. A demon much larger than any he had seen before stood in his path and laughed. The dragon fire merged with the demon fire already dancing along the beast's shoulders.

Daedalus pulled up Scan and assessed his enemy.

Name: Nazareth'gak, Level: 70, Race: Demon Lieutenant, Type: Demonic Torturer, Titles: Butcher of Rasputin, The Scourge, Devourer of Dreams, Bane of Humanity, Age: 789273

Strength: 192837

Intelligence: 5

Constitution: 9081

Dexterity: 12347

Charisma: -237

Perception: 80

Will: 28739

Faith: 9999999999999999

Magic Defense: 90873

Physical Defense: 123784091

Regeneration: Inf

Daedalus harrumphed. That was annoying. The worthless demon was at a higher level than him. And older, somehow. This was not okay. He would deal with him later. Soaring around, he continued routing the army. They fled before him, and the city continued to burn.

In his peripheral vision, Daedalus saw Archibald direct Griff down to the city. Hopefully, he could get whatever errand he had taken care of while Daedalus cleaned up the army.

As he was causing a platoon of demons to retreat into a nearby lake, a sudden impact struck his side. Of course, whatever it was didn't penetrate his scales, but the force of it tossed him sideways through the sky. Daedalus spun with the impact, and the motion threw off a weight that had attached itself to his left hind leg.

Daedalus watched as the laughing form of the demon Lieutenant fell through the sky and splashed into the lake below. How dare he! Just as the demon resurfaced, Daedalus snapped his jaws shut, skimming over the water. Straining his wings, he pulled out of the dive and bit down hard on his foe as he climbed higher in the sky.

It was an effort for his teeth to break through the demon's natural armor, but the bite force of a dragon wasn't to be underestimated either. Slowly, the pressure overcame the demon's defenses and didn't allow the regeneration to take effect.

Several thousand feet in the air, Daedalus finally broke through, and the demon started tumbling to the ground in two halves. That would show him what it meant to laugh at a dragon. Perhaps Daedalus would have to call the council to meet and discuss this issue. If the demons didn't learn their place, the dragons would have to teach them.

Daedalus dove to go back to terrifying the army, but as he made it to the ground, the same demon Lieutenant shot out of the crater left behind by its landing. The impact of the diving dragon and the rising demon sent a shockwave through the sky that leveled trees for miles all around. The walls of Francis shook but miraculously didn't fall.

Daedalus shook his head, his eyes watering from the pain in his nose where the demon's fist had landed. That stung!

They clashed several more times. More often than not, the demon was damaged, but that never slowed it down for long. The unthinkable was slowly happening. He, a red dragon, was taking damage. If this went on much longer, he would have to flee.

After one exchange sent the demon flying toward the horizon, Griff showed up with Archibald on his back. "The city is lost, but we are mostly evacuated! If you can redirect the demon's attention, we can get into the mountain and slip away."

Daedalus acknowledged this, doing his best to keep his flight steady despite the several tears in his wings. It would be good if they would just be able to get away; he wasn't sure if he could win this fight anymore. Not that he'd ever admit it.

As the fight resumed, he stopped trying to destroy his opponent and instead forced him further south. The change in tactics worked in his favor. He was able to take less damage as he fought.

***

"The humans were able to get away that day. Injured as I was, I didn't make it back to my mountain. I needed a place to heal. Archibald was the one who found me, stayed by my side, and stitched my wings together. During the fight, he had reached level 50 and had gotten an interesting class offering.

"Taking my companion class, we started to fight together. The humans grew at the same time they ran. The nomadic settlement soon had to split, but through us and other means, they kept organized, slowly freeing more and more people. The council took a decade to gather, but after my report, they didn't take the threat seriously at first.

"Many went to test the demons and the second council only took a year to regather. With one of our number dead a decision was made. For the first time since the gods retreated the dragons were going to war."